Method and system for media selection and sharing

ABSTRACT

A method and system for media selection and sharing is disclosed. According to one embodiment, media content is received from a media source and is stored in a buffer for a first time period. A second time period within the first time period is determined for creating a media clip from the media content stored in the buffer. A media clip is generated as determined by the second time period. A user provides an input, and the user&#39;s input is associated with the media clip to take one or more effects on the media clip. The media clip enhanced with the one more effects is transmitted over a network to share with other users.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Applications Ser.No. 61/393,789, entitled “Live Media Asset Selection From A SecondaryDevice” and filed on Oct. 15, 2010. Priority to this prior applicationis expressly claimed, and the disclosure is hereby incorporated byreference in their entirety.

FIELD

The field of the invention relates generally to content sharing over anetwork, and more particularly to a method and system for live mediaselection and sharing.

BACKGROUND

Social networking provides an efficient means of communication amongfriends, family, coworkers, and even with the general public. Socialnetworking is becoming increasingly popular because it provides aunified platform for socializing with other people in a way that neverexisted. Thanks to recent technological developments, users can moreeasily connect to social networking sites from using their mobiledevices such as smart phones, tablets, set-top boxes, and televisions.For their convenience, accessibility to rich and diverse content, andentertainment, social networking sites are replacing conventional formsof communication such as newspapers, radios, television, publishing, andemails. This opens up a new business opportunity for advertisers,content owners, and social networking companies.

Users of social networking sites or services access and watch multimediaclips, live TV shows or dramas, sporting events, and movies provided bymedia providers as well as user-created-content (UCC) that other usershave created. Those users may desire to share media clips or points intime of media clips as they watch them. For example, social networkingusers often have reactions to live television broadcast that they watchand desire to share messages about the moment with others within asocial network with a specific reference to their comments and a link tothe media clips. On the other hand, content owners such as broadcastnetworks, advertisers or users who created their own content, may desireto allow others to share a short segment of their content in specificterms and conditions over social networks. Such media sharing andcommenting over social networking sites can further facilitate users'communication and enhance user experience of exchanging comments andsharing the media.

Conventional image/video capturing from a media source requiresspecialized equipment. The users need to manually edit media files usingclient editing software such as Avid or Final Cut—to create a clip andupload captured clips to social networks or video hosting sites.Usually, unauthorized use of content, although the content is availablein public, violates copyright because rights have not been negotiatedwith the content owner for such a use and the user often has norelationship with the content owner. Users post comments in socialnetworks with reference to time codes or video segments as they viewlive video. Other users view the referenced video but the users'comments do not automatically link to the point in time of thereferenced clip.

SUMMARY

A method and system for media selection and sharing is disclosed.According to one embodiment, media content is received from a mediasource and is stored in a buffer for a first time period. A second timeperiod within the first time period is determined for creating a mediaclip from the media content stored in the buffer. A media clip isgenerated as determined by the second time period. A user provides aninput, and the user's input is associated with the media clip to takeone or more effects on the media clip. The media clip enhanced with theone more effects is transmitted over a network to share with otherusers.

The above and other preferred features, including various novel detailsof implementation and combination of elements will now be moreparticularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings andpointed out in the claims. It will be understood that the particularmethods and apparatus are shown by way of illustration only and not aslimitations. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, theprinciples and features explained herein may be employed in various andnumerous embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included as part of the presentspecification, illustrate the presently preferred embodiment of thepresent invention and together with the general description given aboveand the detailed description of the preferred embodiment given belowserve to explain and teach the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic view of an exemplary user interface forcapturing media, according to one embodiment;

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic view of an exemplary user interfacerunning on a mobile phone, according to one embodiment;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary flow chart for capturing a media clip,according to one embodiment;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary computer architecture for use with thepresent system, according to one embodiment; and

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary user interface allowing a user to selecta frame image and specify duration, according to one embodiment.

It should be noted that the figures are not necessarily drawn to scaleand that elements of similar structures or functions are generallyrepresented by like reference numerals for illustrative purposesthroughout the figures. It also should be noted that the figures areonly intended to facilitate the description of the various embodimentsdescribed herein. The figures do not describe every aspect of theteachings disclosed herein and do not limit the scope of the claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A method and system for media selection and sharing is disclosed.According to one embodiment, media content is received from a mediasource and is stored in a buffer for a first time period. A second timeperiod within the first time period is determined for creating a mediaclip from the media content stored in the buffer. A media clip isgenerated as determined by the second time period. A user provides aninput, and the user's input is associated with the media clip to takeone or more effects on the media clip. The media clip enhanced with theone more effects is transmitted over a network to share with otherusers.

Each of the features and teachings disclosed herein can be utilizedseparately or in conjunction with other features and teachings toprovide a method and system for live media selection and sharing.Representative examples utilizing many of these additional features andteachings, both separately and in combination, are described in furtherdetail with reference to the attached drawings. This detaileddescription is merely intended to teach a person of skill in the artfurther details for practicing preferred aspects of the presentteachings and is not intended to limit the scope of the claims.Therefore, combinations of features disclosed in the following detaileddescription may not be necessary to practice the teachings in thebroadest sense, and are instead taught merely to describe particularlyrepresentative examples of the present teachings.

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, specificnomenclature is set forth to facilitate an understanding of the variousinventive concepts disclosed herein. However, it will be apparent to oneskilled in the art that these specific details are not required in orderto practice the various inventive concepts disclosed herein.

The present invention also relates to apparatus for performing theoperations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for therequired purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. Such a computer program may be stored in acomputer-readable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, anytype of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, andmagnetic-optical disks, read-only memories, random access memories,EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of mediasuitable for storing electronic instructions, and each coupled to acomputer system bus.

The methods presented herein are not inherently related to anyparticular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purpose systemsmay be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or itmay prove convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to performthe required method steps. The required structure for a variety of thesesystems will appear from the description below. In addition, the presentinvention is not described with reference to any particular programminglanguage. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languagesmay be used to implement the teachings of the invention as describedherein.

Moreover, the various features of the representative examples and thedependent claims may be combined in ways that are not specifically andexplicitly enumerated in order to provide additional useful embodimentsof the present teachings. It is also expressly noted that all valueranges or indications of groups of entities disclose every possibleintermediate value or intermediate entity for the purpose of originaldisclosure, as well as for the purpose of restricting the claimedsubject matter. It is also expressly noted that the dimensions and theshapes of the components shown in the figures are designed to help tounderstand how the present teachings are practiced, but not intended tolimit the dimensions and the shapes shown in the examples.

Existing techniques and systems for media capture raise copyright issuesbecause rights cannot easily be negotiated for use of captured clipswithin social networks. The present method and system allows contentowners to assign rights and rules to the clips at the time of posting ordelivery at a detailed level. Users who desire to share the entire or aportion of media clips can identify clips are allowed for sharingidentifying the rights assigned by content owners. Based on the allowedcontent rights, users can share media clips. The present system andmethod provides a tool for capturing, previewing and publishing mediaclips without having to buy, configure, and use specialized mediacapturing equipment.

The current television equipment and infrastructure does not allow theuser to easily share specific points in time or clips from what they arewatching. It is an objective of the present system and method to provideusers a tool to reference a clip that they are viewing and attach acomment, rating or other metadata, and receive the user's action. Theuser's action may be received from a hand-held device, for example, aremote control, mobile phone, etc. These users' reactions can beinformational, emotional, or even physical. The comments and/or actionsby the user are integrated into the captured video clip to facilitatecommunication of their interest in and reaction to specific media clipswith other users in social networks or by email.

The present subject matter allows a user to select a snapshot or aportion of media clips (e.g., video and/or audio clips) and share themwith other users. In one embodiment, the media clip selection andsharing is provided by an application running on a mobile device orother secondary device that is capable of viewing, editing and/ortransmitting the selected media clip to other devices or servers of asocial networking site. The shared media clips may be accompanied by auser's comment, a reference or hyperlinks to other videos or photos, arating or a feature resulting from a physical action taken by the user.For example, the user's physical action includes a physical throwinggesture with a mobile phone producing a graphic on the clip of an objectbeing thrown at the clip, such as a tomato.

An example of a user's action for generating a snap or marking a timepoint for a snapped media clip is swinging his or her mobile phone. Auser watching a sports game can post a snapshot of the sports game orgenerate a data point when they swing the mobile phone. Another exampleis swinging the mobile phone towards the television screen and then backin a “fishing cast” motion to send an email to a designated emailaddress. The designated email address may be used for previewing thecaptured media clip and/or add a comment before forwarding or sharingwith others.

According to one embodiment, the present subject matter is coupled witha content rights system that allows varying rights levels and featuresto be specified as to how the shared clips are viewed or used by usersin different geographies and in different time windows.

According to one embodiment, a media selection and sharing deviceprovides media capture and slicing capabilities and allow sharing theselected media clips with other users. The device captures a televisionsignal or externally encoded video streams provided by contentdistributors. For example, those captured media clips are live news orsport events, or video clips hosted by a content distribution Web sitesuch as Hulu® and You-Tube®. The captured signal is encoded to auser-specified format. The user-specified format may be different fromthe generic format of the original media clip such that formatconversion is required from the generic format to the user-specifiedformat. In another embodiment, the user-specified format is acompression format. In yet another embodiment, the media clip isconverted into multiple compression formats. The converted compressionformats may be optimized for distributing to various social networkingsites and other types of devices, or streaming data over variousbandwidth situations.

After the media clip is captured, the device buffers and compresses themedia clips for a specified duration including a date and time valueinto a local disk or a storage medium such as a Web storage. In responseto a user's action or command input, the device creates a virtual clipor a separate video file from the buffer as specified by the date/timevalue with a time marker. The user's input is a gesture, an emotional, avoice input, a physical action, or a click of a button on a userinterface, or any other inputs identifiable by the user device.

For example, the user watching a soccer match on his television set seea goal, and presses a button on his mobile device, enter a comment, ortake a physical action to generate a time marker. The user could thenoptionally edit the time marker to select a different moment prior tosharing the video clip. There are a number of interfaces to select amedia clip, including marking in- and out-points on a timeline. A usercan take a video of a predetermined duration from the buffer, forexample the last 20 seconds, from the moment when the user clicks a“snap” button. In yet another example, the user selects a section ofpartial thumbs. Referring to FIG. 5, the user can select a first frameimage and specify duration, scroll through first frame images bydragging or swiping, and click a “post” button to transmit the selectedvirtual clip. Those skilled in the art would understand that there are avariety of ways to specify time markers and select a virtual clip from abuffer.

The time marker may reflect the date and time of the newly cratedvirtual clip or the date and time of the original media clip. In theformer case, the device automatically adjusts the time marker to matchaverage encoding time delay.

In one embodiment, the user starts the media capturing application, orclicks a link in a web page to select a media for capturing fromavailable sources. The user viewing the media on a computer or mobiledevice clicks on a button or enters a comment on within or on the videoplayer. The video player generates a signal to process the receiveduser's input. Various gesture recognition techniques may be used torecognize user's actions. For example, the user's gesture of swings thedevice is used to trigger the “snap” action using an accelerometer. Thestart and end times may be defined by the content owner or the system,or by the user who snaps the video clip. For example, the user couldselect the starting and ending frames of the desired video clip from ashow he is watching on television on his mobile phone. The start timeand the duration may be set by user-specifiable values, for example 20seconds, measured backward from the snapped action. In anotherimplementation, the initiation of the swinging could mark the start timeand the cessation the end time. The real-time accelerometer data may beused against reference data of a machine learning algorithm that can beconfigured to train the pattern of the user's action to produce amachine recognizable signal. The user's second gesture may triggertransformation of the selected clip, for example, an overlay of a tomatothrown at the currently playing clip.

The last known clipping parameters may be used or the user may changethem before posting a new clip. For example, a user's app on his/hermobile phone may be set to “CNN News” for the title at the start of asnap, but the user can change it to “MTV” assigning a different set ofmetadata to the video before posting it.

According to one embodiment, the present media selection and sharingsystem and method provides a media content management capability. Thedevice associates the newly created virtual media clip with metadataincluding schedule information (e.g., date, time, duration, title,description, station, cast, genre, etc.). The association of theschedule information with the media clip may occur before but preferablyafter the encoding of the media clip.

As a part of the information association, the content owner is allowedto further associate cascading rights to the media clip. The cascadingrights define the level of access to the media clip by users: global,network/channel, station, program, schedule, broadcast window. Globalright means that other users can access the media clip with no temporalrestrictions. Network/channel right allows unlimited access to the mediaclip as long as other users have access right to the network and/orchannel to which the media clip belongs or the media clip belongs to acertain network/channel that provides unlimited access to the users.Similarly, station right allows users to access the media clip when themedia clip belongs to a certain station or users have access right tothe station.

For example, such network/channels are Websites that have restrictedmembership to paying users. A channel can be a series of TV programs ora series of events from other sources, with or without gap inscheduling. Program right allows users to access the media clip if themedia clip is captured from a certain program. Schedule right limitsaccess to the media clip for a predefined duration whereas broadcastwindow right allows access only for a limited duration of broadcastingor a limited time from the broadcasting.

According to one embodiment, information association can impose accessrestriction to the media clip geographically as well as viewing time andtime zone. For example, the media clip can be configured to allow accessto users connecting from U.S. territory. Access to the media clip may berestricted by the origination, i.e., domain name of the access request,other location services such as IP to geographic lookups, or bycollecting location data from the device the media clip is used on.

According to another embodiment, a delay restriction by time zone may beadded to the information association. The page or embedded viewer takesinto account geographical and time rights restrictions. For example, amedia clip currently viewable in the East Coast cannot be viewed on theWest Coast until 3 hrs after capturing the media clip.

The metadata contains clip duration information. By default, minimum andmaximum values are specified. Maximum value of zero indicates nocapturing is allowed for the image or video clips being played on theuser's window. For programs aired previously, a time window can bespecified to allow a user to capture within a predefined duration sincethe program first aired. Other social actions such a user's physicalgestures and sharing in social networks may be associated to the mediaclips for distribution and sharing as the content distributor or ownersintend.

The information association may be used to implement an advertisingsystem. Depending on the playing time and location, or any otherassociated information, the media clip may be played with an embeddedadvertisement

The user can associate a preferred station information to the capturedmedia clip. When no user selection of a preferred station is specified,a global default station is selected. Alternatively, the stationinformation may be fed from an analysis of the user behavior or data.For example, a “popular now” station may be added as a stationinformation. The “popular now” station may be the station that currentlyhas the most snaps using a snap count as an indicator of popularity.Many other techniques exist to analyze real-time data (e.g., hash-tagcounts in twitter data over a specified time period) to select thepopular station.

In other embodiments, the associated information may be updated withnear-live audio/video signatures by a specified station, network/channelor program. An audio signatures service such as IntoNow and Shazam or animage signatures service such as TvTak may be used to identify the mediathat a user is watching. The information association could integrate oneof these signature services to provide semi-automatic selection of amedia source and station. The integrated service may be implemented inan application running on a mobile phone or a portable device.

The last channel that the user selected is selected by default or theuser is presented with a popular source at the time of log-in based onother users' snapping counts. The snapping feature may incorporate otherfeatures. For example, an audio fingerprint is captured from the user'sdevice and matched against available live audio/video sources toautomatically select the source.

According to one embodiment, the present media selection and sharingdevice captures the user's snap action and records the snap time. Theuser provides association information to the captured media clip,otherwise default information is associated with the snapped media clip.After the information association is complete, the user is presentedwith a preview clip or image and alternatives from other stations. Thealternatives would be alternative snaps or image previews so that theuser could choose based on visually recognizing what image was on theuser interface. The user is allowed to select the current station, savethe station information to the user data, and re-present the stationinformation in a preview. The user is also allowed to adjust thecaptured clip by moving in-point, out-point and duration. The adjustedinformation may be previewed repeatedly. The user then enters commentsin a text field. The user clicks on the share button to publish andshare in a social networking system.

Due to the restricted access rights to certain media clips, the user isallowed to select only a permitted image for sharing based on his/herright to the current audio/video source. The video clips that the userselects include popular or suggested clips by the system or clipscreated by other users subscribing to the service.

According to one embodiment, the present media selection and sharingdevice connected to a social sharing system such as Twitter®, Facebook®,and Linked In®. The user identifier, user text, and media information istransmitted from the device to the social sharing system. By doing so,the user is allowed to configure sharing of media clips with other userson the social networking sites. The receiving social sharing systemcreates an entry for user text and media as described by theuser-provided media information. For example, the social sharing systemcreates a URL where the user can preview the text and media information.Once satisfied with previewing, the user posts user text and the URLwith an snapping action. The snapped media clip is posted in associationwith the user-provided text and URL to the designated social networkingsites.

In one embodiment, the media snapping and posting is performed by anapplication program or a web browser—collectively referred to as aclient program. The client program provides a user interface forreceiving the user's snap action and viewing. The client programadditionally may collect audio signatures from the device to send to auser-specified station. It is possible to receive the user's action byanalyzing the user's physical action. To receive the use's action, theuser interface allows the user to select a virtual item using a pointingdevice or touch screen or virtual physical action.

In one embodiment, a user's single action produces multiple effects on amedia clip including selection of a station as well as an action to takeon the snap. The user selects a channel from a list of channels on theuser interface. In addition, the user selects an image representing aspecial effect. For example, an example of an action is “throwing at thescreen” and the selected image is a “tomato.” When the user generates asnap based on the throwing action, a splatting tomato is overlaid on theproduced media clip. When other users view the media clip, they see thetomato effect overlaid on the media clip.

In one embodiment, the user receives an offer or call to action, such asa discount on a product that is related to the captured media content.The related media content may be an advertisement.

The present system and method provides analysis on the real-time countsof users' snaps. For example, a histogram of representing users' totalsnap counts within a scheduled time is obtained. In determining thesnaps to be returned, the user specifies a threshold count. All snaps'URLs or data that exceed the threshold count are returned to the user.These events exceeding the user-specified threshold count are viewablein an application (e.g., in a “highlight” of the event section), website, or by an email once the event is over. Relevant data for auser-specifiable event identified by a search term (e.g., “sports event”including baseball, football, soccer, golf, ice hockey, etc.) mayaggregate twitter data as well as with the snap count for that event. Inone embodiment, the top ten most snapped (by histogram time) URLs arereturned to the user.

According to one embodiment, the count data resulting from users' socialactions on media objects are calculated. A user clicks “snap” to startan application program, clicks a web browser bookmark, or any otheraction that indicates and mark the current time. The “snap” is referredto a clickable button in of the user interface that marks the time thatit is pressed and then proceeds to editing before sharing. A “snap”function may be incorporated into another feature, for example, a user'sphysical action of swinging. A “snap” may automatically occur when theuser starts typing a comment while viewing a media object. The userselects from available sources (e.g., television channels) by viewingtitle and description data, and optionally showing a thumbnail image ora short video clip. The user adjusts the selected media clip in-pointand out-point times to specify the exact clip he or she desires tocapture. The user optionally adds text to attach to the sharing action.The user clicks a “share” button to send the captured media clip to asocial network site along with the text and a link to a page that willplay back the specified clip.

According to one embodiment, users are provided with auto-generatedclips based on their popularity. The auto-generated of most snappedclips or the users' activities on those clips, such as view counts, thenumber of tweets or “likes” in social networks, or other metadata of theshared clips. Such metadata are updated on a per source programmingbasis. For example, the top 10 clips are presented to user based on thenumber of users who snapped a common section of the clips or totalcounts of snaps.

According to one embodiment, other users “re-snap”, “like”, comment, ortake another action on the same clip that another user acted on to addtheir own text and/or share to their social networks.

The present system and method in conjunction with social networkingfeatures provides an interactive service that facilitate ease of mediasharing and communication. It allows a user to browse web sites, andsnap to start the client application. For a newly registering user, theapplication invites the user to join the service and link to his/herother social networking sites, and optionally saves the user'scredentials for auto-linking without needing to re-login to theassociated sites.

In one embodiment, the user browses on a mobile version of theinteractive service. The client application is downloaded to the userdevice (e.g., mobile phone, computer, tablet PC). The client applicationcan be started by selecting a channel or a show, or by clicking “snap”from a website, in other applications, or a set-top box menu. The deviceentering the user's snap action may be a different from the device thatprovides the interactive user interface. For example, a set-top boxprovides the user interface, but the remote control of the set-top boxreceives the user's physical action for signaling the snapping action.In other examples, the same device such as a mobile phone provides theuser interface and receives the user action.

The present system and method allows a user to select and publishcontent or a portion of content from live audio/video sources. Forexample, students can take “video notes” in a school lecture and createshighlights or summary of the lecture. In other examples, participants ofconferences, concerts or other events to capture a video clip to sharewith others in a social network. It can also be used for live sportingevents. A user live viewing experience can be systematically shared viaan embedded video source capturing on social networks.

The present system and method allows a user to create a highlight reelfrom a continuous audio/video source such as a surveillance camera in aperson's living room or backyard. The recorded audio/video clips aremarked with moments of interest with comments. In one embodiment, thecomments may be automatically inserted by analyzing the captured video.In the example of the surveillance camera, a sudden appearance of aperson at the front door can be automatically commented for the homeowner's later viewing. The person appearing can be automaticallyrecognized using a face-recognition software. When no particular eventsoccurs, the recoded video clips are overwritten with newer clips, andonly the clips with comments are saved. The user can also manuallyremove the reviewed clips.

Video sources such as webcams may be used to provide video channels. Thewebcams registered in the network streams videos to a central server. Inone embodiment, geo-location information for the webcams is used in anapplication. In this case, “snap by location” automatically connects auser to the geographically closest camera or select a webcam forstreaming from a list of the webcams. In another embodiment, the videosources may be users' mobile device with a camera. In this case, theuser's location is streamed to the server along with the streamingvideo. A party-thrower adds a webcam and broadcasts video streams to theparty-goers, When a user notices the guy falling on a table, the userpulls out his mobile phone, connects to the server, selects the moment,and posts the webcam footage of the guy falling on the table with acomment “omg, @jimjones just broke the table at the @jerrymack party!.”The user posts the snapped webcam footage on a social networking site orshares it with others via MMS or email.

According to one embodiment, a user's composite action is received toprovide multiple effects. For example, the user's gesture to throw atomato at the screen during a live comedy viewing creates a clip of thevideo overlaid with a tomato animation.

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic view of an exemplary user interface forcapturing media, according to one embodiment. User interface 12 containsa display area 12 playing a live football game. User interface 12 may bedisplayed on a television, personal computer, tablet PC, mobile phone,or any other display capable of receiving a television signal. Userinterface 12 may be provided to the user over a Web browser or on a webapplication. User interface 12 provides various functions enabled byclickable buttons including preview button 14, comment area 16, sharebutton 18, cancel button 20, settings button 22, logout button 24, andplay button 26. The video of the live football game is stored in arolling buffer for a predetermined duration, for example, 30 seconds. Bydefault, the rolling buffer is continuously capturing the live footballgame until the user clicks on play button 26. When the user clicks onplay button 26, the video of the football game is replayed as if aninstant replay. During the replay, the rolling buffer is not beingupdated. Timeline 30 provides a two timer markers, i.e., start time, andend time. The user positions the start and end time markers to create avideo clip of the captured football game.

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic view of an exemplary user interfacerunning on a mobile phone, according to one embodiment. After the videoclip is created, the user is given an opportunity to preview. Displayarea 12 is turned into a recipient screen 20 with an overlaid playbutton. The user is able to preview, replay, as well as adjust the startand end time markers. If not satisfied, the user can cancel by pressingcancel button 20, click on adjust snap button 32 to recapture anothervideo clip from the rolling buffer, or return to the live football game.The user can also add a comment by entering text in a comment area 22.When satisfied, the user clicks on share button 18 to publish the videoclip with the comment on a designated social networking site.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary flow chart for capturing a media clip,according to one embodiment. A user starts an application (301). Theapplication may be a Web browser or an application program running on apersonal computer, a mobile device such as a mobile phone, a tablet PC,etc. The application displays various media sources, and the userselects a media source, for example, a live sport event (302). Whilewatching the media source, the user specifies in and out points (303) tocreate a video clip. The in and out points may be defined by timeline 30as in the example of FIG. 2. Once the in and out points are specified,the user optionally enters a comment (304). Finally, the user sends thevideo clip integrated with the entered comment (305). The video clip ishosted by a social networking site to share with other users.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary computer architecture 400 for use withthe present system, according to one embodiment. Computer architecture400 may be used to implement an online referral system with all or apart of the components shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. One embodiment ofarchitecture 400 comprises a system bus 420 for communicatinginformation, and a processor 410 coupled to bus 420 for processinginformation. Architecture 400 further comprises a random access memory(RAM) or other dynamic storage device 425 (referred to herein as mainmemory), coupled to bus 420 for storing information and instructions tobe executed by processor 410. Main memory 425 also may be used forstoring temporary variables or other intermediate information duringexecution of instructions by processor 410. Architecture 400 also mayinclude a read only memory (ROM) and/or other static storage device 426coupled to bus 420 for storing static information and instructions usedby processor 410.

A data storage device 427 such as a flash memory, a magnetic disk oroptical disc and its corresponding drive may also be coupled to computersystem 400 for storing information and instructions. Architecture 400can also be coupled to a second I/O bus 450 via an I/O interface 430. Aplurality of I/0 devices may be coupled to I/O bus 450, including adisplay device 443, an input device (e.g., an alphanumeric input device442 and/or a cursor control device 441).

The communication device 440 allows for access to other computers(servers or clients) via a network. The communication device 440 maycomprise a modem, a network interface card, a wireless network interfaceor other well known interface device, such as those used for coupling toEthernet, token ring, or other types of networks.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have beenillustrated and described in detail, it will be readily apparent tothose skilled in the art that various modifications may be made thereinwithout departing from the sprit of the present invention or from thescope of the appended claims.

1. A method comprising: receiving media content from a media source;storing the media content in a buffer for a first time period;determining a second time period within the first time period;generating a media clip as determined by the second time period;receiving a user input associated with the captured media clip;associating the user input to take one or more effects on the mediaclip; and transmitting the media clip enhanced with the one or moreeffects over a network.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the mediasource is selected from a group comprising a television show, drama,sporting event, movie, and multimedia clips available over the network.3. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a user interface,wherein the user interface contains a plurality of clickable areas forreceiving inputs from a user.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein theplurality of clickable areas comprises a timeline, a preview button, acomment area, a share button, a cancel button, a settings button, alogout button, and a play button.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein theuser input is a gesture, a voice input, an emotion, a physical action, aclick of a button on a user interface, or any combination thereof. 6.The method of claim 1, wherein access rights information associated withthe media content limits a user from accessing to the media contentaccording to the user's access right.
 7. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising: receiving a user action from a hand-held device; identifyinga feature associated with the user action; and associating theidentified feature to the media clip.
 8. The method of claim 7, whereinthe user action is a swing motion detected by an accelerometer and theswing motion triggers generating the media content from the mediasource.
 9. The method of claim 7, wherein the user action is a compositeaction to provide multiple effects to the media clip.
 10. The method ofclaim 9, wherein the composite action creates an animation overlaid onthe captured media clip,
 11. A non-transitory computer readable mediumhaving stored thereon computer-readable instructions, which instructionswhen executed by a processor cause the processor to perform operationscomprising: receiving media content from a media source; storing themedia content in a buffer for a first time period; determining a secondtime period within the first time period; generating a media clip asdetermined by the second time period; receiving a user input associatedwith the captured media clip; associating the user input to take one ormore effects on the media clip; and transmitting the media clip enhancedwith the one or more effects over a network.
 12. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the media source isselected from a group comprising a television show, drama, sportingevent, movie, and multimedia clips available over the network.
 13. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 having furtherinstructions stored thereon computer-readable instructions, whichinstructions when executed by the processor cause the processor toperform operations comprising providing a user interface, wherein theuser interface contains a plurality of clickable areas for receivinginputs from a user.
 14. The non-transitory computer readable medium ofclaim 13, wherein the plurality of clickable areas comprises a timeline,a preview button, a comment area, a share button, a cancel button, asettings button, a logout button, and a play button.
 15. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the userinput is a gesture, a voice input, an emotional, a physical action, or aclick of a button on a user interface, or any combination thereof. 16.The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein accessrights information associated with the media content limits a user fromaccessing to the media content according to the user's access right. 17.The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 11 havingfurther instructions stored thereon computer-readable instructions,which instructions when executed by the processor cause the processor toperform operations comprising: receiving a user action from a hand-helddevice; identifying a feature associated with the user action; andassociating the identified feature to the media clip.
 18. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the useraction is a swing motion detected by an accelerometer and the swingmotion triggers generating the media content from the media source. 19.The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein a useraction is a composite action to provide multiple effects to the mediaclip.
 20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19,wherein the composite action creates an animation overlaid on thecaptured media clip.